


Forza.

by RaccoonEyedNerd



Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: F/F, tw for war related subjects
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-25
Updated: 2018-06-25
Packaged: 2019-05-28 07:36:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15043904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RaccoonEyedNerd/pseuds/RaccoonEyedNerd
Summary: Forza means strenght in Italian; this is based in a conversation I overheard in a train.





	Forza.

**Author's Note:**

> A big trigger warning for everyone, so if you're sensitive to all things related to war, you shouldn't read this.
> 
> As always, thank you for reading, your support means a lot.

“You’re here…”

 

It’s the most obvious thing she could notice at the moment, yet she feels the need to voice it out, maybe that way she could make it valid, true; the other girl is still panting, her hair sticking to her forehead thanks to the sweat on her skin, but she sends her the sweetest of smiles when she hears the words coming out from her mouth like the flow of the river they used to visit each time they wanted to be alone.

 

“I told you I would, Momo.” Mina says, getting off her bike in a rather unusually clumsy way.

 

It’s a windy day, so it’s expected for the hood over Momo’s recently cut hair to slide back to reveal the dark tresses framing her face as she practically runs into Mina’s embrace like she just came back from the war.

 

“Did you ride a goddamn bicycle all the way from your house, are you crazy?”

 

In a certain way, she probably did.

 

“And wait for the next bus tomorrow? Fuck it, I wanted to see you.”

 

Momo doesn’t care about the possibility of being found by her parents or sister, kissing her childhood friend like she couldn’t breathe if it wasn’t from her lips. She pecks her lips over and over again like she’s still trying to make sure she’s really there, but she feels the smell of jasmine filling her lungs and tastes the peppermint chapstick on her lips; Momo lifts her on her arms, and Mina’s legs soon find their place around her waist.

 

It’s hard to kiss her when she wants to smile so bad, Momo notices, and only parts when she realizes they can’t really stay on the front of her house the whole evening.

 

“Come inside, my parents are cooking dinner.” Momo mutters against her lips and watches how Mina bites her lower lip to hide the big gummy smile reflecting her happiness.

 

They stay there for a couple more instants, staring at each other with tender smiles, the wind making their hair dance as their hearts set the beat and their delighted chuckles fill the spot as a harmony; Momo thinks she falls in love with everything around her if Mina is involved, just like the smell of the grass and the trees surrounding her home; she notices how deep she’s engraved into her soul when everything, even the fabric of her shirt, reminds her of the taste of her lips and the sound of her laughter.

 

“Okay” She breathes out and Momo lets her feet touch the ground again, soon interlacing their fingers so she can walk with her into the two-story home.

 

Mina purposely ignores the way in which Momo walks now that she came back, she’s happy because she came back anyway.

 

She learnt to love unusual things thanks to Momo too; she smiles to herself when she hears the sound their shoes do when they step on the old wood of the porch, a subtle reminder of those times when they were just kids playing with water balloons, talking about their dreams and about those weird scary stories Momo’s grandmother told them. Mina would be lying if she said she wasn’t still scared of looking out of her window on those nights when her dog decided that howling was the most fun thing to do at three in the morning.

 

Mina has known Momo’s parents as long as her own; a nice couple with a too big sense of responsibility to be a typical family, and her sister it’s just like her, but more serious and certainly more intimidating. She wants to smile at the similarities they all share, and she easily sees how similar Momo is to her parents, the strong build of her father and the kind smile of her mother.

 

And of course, that big sense of responsibility.

 

Dinner time with the Hirais it’s an adventure, and Mina wouldn’t change those moments for anything else. Hana is as fast as Momo at eating, but she leaves the table earlier under the excuse of tiredness (Mina knows it’s because of her boyfriend, her constantly vibrating cellphone was the giveaway) and Momo’s mother only keeps offering her more food.

 

“You’re too skinny, dear.” She says each time she refills her plate with traditional food.

 

“Mom, you’re spoiling her.” Momo replies with a cheeky smile, and Mina nudges her with an elbow.

 

“Shush, you have to eat too, sweetie, look how weak you look; you need to regain strength so you can help your father on the farm, the barn it’s still dirty.”

 

“Couldn’t Hana clean it while I was away?” Momo pouts, and Mina really has to cling onto the fork to resist the urge to kiss her.

 

“She was as busy as you were.”

 

“I missed this.” Mina mindlessly says, thinking out loud.

 

The three remaining Hirais on the table look at her surprised at first, but soon those looks are replaced with soft smiles and a proud huff coming from Momo’s dad, who places one of his big hands on Momo’s shoulder and pats there a couple times. It feels like a second home for Mina; the smell of food, the laughter and funny stories, and of course, the stories from Momo’s dad, who couldn’t be prouder.

 

“You won’t believe this, Mina.” He starts, and Mina opens her mouth to interrupt him because Momo looks down and it isn’t out of embarrassment. “Our Momo here, she’s a hero.”

 

Even Momo looks at her father surprised, and Mina feels like she shouldn’t be hearing until she feels her best friend’s, no, her lover’s fingers interlacing with her own under the table; Momo’s mom immediately reaches for a napkin to hide her already teary eyes, but Mr. Hirai reaches for her and puts his arm around her shoulders.

 

There’s nothing but pure love in the exchange.

 

“Momo saved the lives of twenty children while she was away, did she tell you?” He chuckles, softly squeezing his daughter’s shoulder in a sign of respect.

 

Mina shakes her head, silently asking both Momo and Mrs. Hirai if it was okay for her to know.

 

“She was at a children center, you know, moving stuff around and helping the medical services and the kids themselves while I was with the air force people; I couldn’t see her a lot, but my subordinates tracked her down for me every now and then.” He confesses, smiling cheekily, but as soon the smile appeared, it softened and Mina swore she saw regret flashing through the big (but soft) man.

 

Momo squeezed Mina’s fingers softly, and just then she realizes she hasn’t added too much to the story, maybe she isn’t ready yet, or so Mina thinks until she sees her lover nodding slowly on her father’s direction.

 

Maybe she doesn’t feel strong enough to say it herself, which Mina thinks it’s the craziest thing she ever heard because Momo had to be the bravest woman she ever met.

 

“You know how kids are, no matter where they’re from, they always want to play and explore.” He continues. “Those kids weren’t an exception, and they thought it was safe to leave the premises to play ball outside…”

 

Mina blinks a couple times as she takes the information in, and a chill runs down her spine because she should be glad that Momo is back, but there’s definitely something wrong going on.

 

“Momo saved all of them.” Mrs. Hirai finishes instead, and Momo sends her a grateful look.

 

It’s a silent thank you.

 

And a big question growing inside Mina’s head.

 

Of course, the answer comes back in the shape of a single sentence in the voice she missed so much, and a gentle pulling on her hand as both of Momo’s parents share a look and nod in support at her younger daughter.

 

“Wanna hang out with me on the tree house?”

 

Her hand it’s a bit rougher, Mina notices as she nods and gets up, thanking Momo’s mom for the food and following her lover towards the edges of the forest, where their secret fort waits for them.

 

It’s a childish thing, product of their younger imaginations and hard work for at least two endless weeks; Mina remembers all of it with a smile as they approach the secret tree house they built with their own hands, a humble hideout with endless memories filling every piece of wood and nail attached to it.

 

“He’s a captain, a soldier” Momo says once she helps Mina into their secret spot, lighting up an old lamp they left behind, leaning her back in the wall in front of Mina with a small groan leaving her lips when she stabilizes herself. “He won’t say it, explain it the way it’s supposed to… I’m not saying he’s insensitive, but I know you better.”

 

Mina frowns, but nods anyway; she doesn’t have an opportunity to talk yet, but she’s always eager to listen to her; Momo it’s like a book with blank pages, you know that there’s a lot of stories inside, but you can’t get to read them until you see them in a different light. Momo is magical in that way, so much more inside her than she lets the world see; Mina had the chance, throughout the years to know more than anyone could, but there was still that dark, hidden corner on her mind and heart she didn’t had access to yet.

 

She easily found out that the exact moment when they looked at each other for the first time in two years, that she was going to see another entirely different side of her.

 

Mina craves to throw herself into her arms when Momo looks at her under the dim light of the lamp, looking more lost than she ever did; seeking for answers in all the wrong places, missing inside the blurry part of her heart, where she doesn’t usually dare to wander into.

 

“Talk to me.” She whispers into the night, trying to reach her without a touch, trying to ignore the scared part of her that wants to panic and ask her once and for all to say if she’s really okay or not.

 

Still, Momo taught her about the virtue of patience, as Mrs. Hirai did upon the departure of both her husband and younger daughter to a place so dangerous that the chance of they not coming back existed, but the faith was strong enough that they actually did.

 

“Dad and his people were in charge of clearing the fields for the volunteers to work on new houses for the people there; I was just in charge of the kids and helping the UN people and medics taking care of them, but you know how much I love kids, so I played with them more than I worked.”

 

“I looked away just for a minute, one time.” She chuckles softly, and Mina reaches out for her hand. “And all of them were gone, I asked the medics but they just were as confused as I was; I never felt so scared in my whole life, Mina, I swear.”

 

Her eyes get cloudy, and Mina doesn’t like it at all, but she knows Momo needs this as much as she does, to support her, to love her unconditionally.

 

“So I told them I’d look for the kids myself.” She sniffs, but Mina keeps her space. “They told me to take some of my dad’s men with me, but I was too scared to listen. So I ran, and ran from one side of the refuge field to the other until I saw it, I saw the cuts on the fence and all of their footprints… I just knew, because It was me who gave them the shoes.”

 

“I didn’t listen, I just went after them.” She stops for a bit, and Mina witness how Momo, the soft, cheeky girl she loves, slowly turns into the soldier her father raised.

 

She’s trying to keep it all in, and Mina lets her.

 

Because no one knows Momo as Mina does.

 

And still, she’s about to find out about a secret someone else already knows.

 

“I was supposed to be back here a year ago… But I didn’t want to come back like this.”

 

“Momo?”

 

“I’m incomplete, Mina.” She firmly states, and slowly lets Mina’s hand go.

 

Tears threaten to fill her eyes when she sees Momo pat her own knee softly.

 

“Momo, what happened there?”

 

“I found them, Mina. They were a couple minutes away from the refuge, but they weren’t playing, they weren’t making a single sound; God, I still remember the silence… That was why no one found them, they were so quiet.” By that moment she’s trying to hold back the sobs, but she clenches both of her fists on her loose work-jeans. “One of them stepped on a landmine; they are different from us, Minari, those kids know how a landmine sounds when you step on it… No kid should know that.”

 

“Momo-“

 

“I wasn’t going to let them get hurt, no more. So I told the rest of them to walk back to the refuge, slowly as they could; and the kid, the small boy who stepped on the landmine, he looked at me with tears on his yes, apologizing over and over again… I didn’t doubt it for a second, I replaced his foot with mine and grabbed him by the shirt, tossed him away so he could run for it.”

 

There’s a dead silence from that moment, and Mina tries to remember good moments she could link with the sound of the wind caressing the branches of a tree that has seen it all, from the first time they played together to the moment they made love for the first time before Momo left.

 

Both of them, Mina and the tree, had the luck to see Momo coming back, but, as she said… Incomplete.

 

“Did he…?” She dares to start, sighing in relief when Momo shakes her head.

 

Mina can’t really stand the distance anymore, so she just crawls towards her and sits besides her, bringing her close and into her arms; Mina sees beyond the pain on her words, and she’s sure she’s ready to fight whatever force it’s thrown at her if it’s for Momo’s sake.

 

And Momo seems to feel it too, when she reaches for one of her hands and slowly guides it towards her right shin.

 

She covers Mina’s silent sob with her own words.

 

“Dad says I was lucky, everyone says so… A miracle, they called me.” She looks away in shame as Mina starts crying. “I call this irresponsibility, my own irresponsibility because I was supposed to take care of them but almost got them killed.”

 

“Idiot.” Mina says, using her sleeve to clean the tears that don’t stop falling down her pretty face; Momo feels guilty for yet another thing.

 

She was supposed to make Mina happy, not the opposite.

 

“Idiot.” She repeats.

 

“I know.”

 

“No, you don’t” She interrupts her, using her hand to force Momo to look at her. “You’re here, blaming yourself for shit you didn’t even do and hurting yourself over things you have no control over when you have a family here who thinks that the sole fact of seeing your face everyday it’s the greatest gift they ever received. Are you dumb?”

 

“Mina…”

 

“Don’t Mina me, just listen to something you might’ve already heard, but you’re too stubborn to even listen.” She practically barks, fighting back the tears as she holds onto Momo’s face like it’s the only thing remaining in the universe. “You are here now, you are with your parents and your sister; you’re in your farm again, you get to see your trees and the treehouse… You’re with me now, Momo. And I’m not giving you away, not to that place, and certainly not to that darkness behind your eyes.”

 

Momo starts crying at the moment Mina says that she loves her as much as she did the night before she left, and as much as the moment they met each other for the first time when they were kids.

 

And Mina holds her like she’s never letting her go, because she isn’t.

 

And they cry together for the first time in two years; two years that Momo describes with detail through the night, to Mina’s very eager ears, whispering against her lips because Mina finally seems to take it all in, the possibility of not being there, of not existing anymore and she refuses to let go of her body.

 

They’re back to being kids, cuddling under blankets in the treehouse, telling each other secrets and the dreams they had for the future.

 

The super hero and the flower child.

 

More real than they would have guessed.

 

“Momo?” She whispers into the night, easily reaching her lover’s ears.

 

“Yes, Mina?” Momo asks back, confused as her lover shifts on her embrace.

 

“Can I see?”

 

And the silence comes back as Momo’s throat moves slowly.

 

Mina can see her swallowing her fears when she reaches for her hand and kisses rough knuckles to call for peace in her heart.

 

And it’s the most enormous confession of love and trust when she slowly nods her approval.

 

The younger girl kneels in front of her, but her eyes don’t leave Momo’s as she reaches for the left hem of her jeans.

 

“Mina that isn’t-”

 

“Let me show you something beautiful, Momo.” She says, smiling softly as she pulls the fabric up until it reaches her knee and then gets rid of her boots and socks. “Just let me show you.”

 

Momo doesn’t know the definition of many words, she isn’t the bookwork Mina turned into because she was more of a sports girl than other thing, but she’s sure to get at least a bit closer to the definition of love when she sees Mina placing soft, small kisses to the skin of her knee. She watches in wonder how the lips she knows by heart slide down her shin and kiss every single scar she finds down to the bridge of her foot.

 

She’s kissing the fears away, as she always do.

 

“You always seem to forget how strong you are, how wonderful you get at every day that passes by.”

 

She reaches for the right hem, and Momo moves to stop her.

 

But Mina loves her as much as she’s stubborn, and for Momo, Mina is ready to fight the entire world without a doubt.

 

She did ride a bicycle all the way from her home to get to her and prove her once again how much she loves her.

 

So she slides the material up once again, and the smile doesn’t leave her face even when she sees the metal replacing what once was her right leg.

 

Momo wants to cry when Mina carefully takes her right boot, holding the metallic prosthetic as carefully as she did with her other leg, and she finally does when Mina repeats the same process, all over again.

 

“Quando mi alzo dopo essere caduto, trovo la forza” She whispers against Momo’s right knee.

 

Her lips trace her leg until the scarred skin makes an abrupt transition into plastic and titanium, but, to Momo’s surprise, she keeps going.

 

She loves every piece of her, that’s what she’s proving.

 

And they look at each other like they carry the whole universe on their eyes.

 

They figure out they probably do.

 

Mina leans forward and kisses Momo’s tears away as soon as they appear, and soon her lips find home on hers when she whispers yet another sentence Momo refuses to let go because it becomes her life line, as much as the bearer of those words is.

 

“You might not notice, Momo, but every breath you take makes me believe.”

 

“In what?”

 

“Everything good in this world.”

 

She kisses her again.

 

“Mina…”

 

“Yes?”

 

“What did you mean? Earlier you said…”

 

“When I get up after falling, I find the strength.” Mina replies, leaning her forehead against Momo’s.

 

They hold hands again as a silent promise.

 

They become each other’s strength to fight every single battle.

 

They become each other’s forza.


End file.
